Journal of Construction Engineering, Management & Innovation

Gulbin Ozcan-Deniz

Recent developments in the Virtual Reality (VR) have positively affected the way design and construction parties understand, revise, and complete building projects. VR offers unique capabilities such as stepping into a 3D model of the building during early design stages and maneuvering with interactive features in the virtual environment. With these opportunities, designers, contractors, and owners can now share data and make crucial decisions even before the model is implemented at the construction site. A variety of applications and uses of VR are possible for contractors, yet the detailed analysis of key enablers and challengers from general contractors’ (GC) perspective is missing. This study aims to perform a detailed review of VR applications in the construction industry by conducting a multiple case study approach. Data collection was performed on twenty-seven (27) case studies from eighteen (18) construction companies in the U.S. to report the uses and benefits of VR in the construction industry from GCs’ perspective. Findings revealed the main uses of VR as design reviews for clients and occupants, project coordination, monitoring the construction process, and training. The greatest value of the VR technology were reported as decreasing cost, optimizing schedules, streamlining the occupant-related decision process, and enhancing collaboration. All companies have been using immersive VR technology, which showed their investment and commitment to this emerging technology and its benefits in the construction industry. Future studies are planned to compare applications of VR in academia vs. in construction industry to close the gap of knowledge between educators and practitioners.

https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02048066

Hasan Gokberk Bayhan Gul Polat

In recent years, environmental issues have become one of the main concerns of the construction sector. Green buildings are recognized as an important step towards these issues by construction professionals. However, this situation creates new challenges for companies providing contracting services in foreign countries. Today, designing and constructing projects that comply with the requirements of green building certification systems increase the prestige and profit of both the project owner and the contractor. In this study, the green building certification process of two shopping mall projects, which were certified with the Ecostandard green certification system in the Moscow city held by foreign contractors, is investigated. A comparative qualitative case study methodology has been employed to gain a better understanding of the critical success factors of the certification process. A SWOT analysis framework is used to comprehensively understand the differences between these two shopping mall projects. The lack of systems for ecological management, outdoor lighting and minimize light pollution, renewable energy sources, material and waste management have been found as the major weaknesses of these projects. On the other hand, architectural planning and design solutions, site selection, infrastructure, and landscaping have been found as strengths. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted to put forward opportunities and threats. The outcomes of this study are expected to guide construction professionals in the new construction certification process of mall projects. Also, the proposed outcomes can be employed to investigate residential or commercial buildings with green certification built by foreign contractors in the future.

https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02067081

Mizanoor Rahman Md. Jihan Rabbani Md. Sharif Uddin

The construction industry has a great impact on the economic growth of a country. Site management is an important issue to ensure efficient construction. Site management condition in construction industry in Bangladesh especially Khulna city still facing impediment as there is a deficiency of efficient implementation of Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) version 93. This study aims to identify the scenarios of site management practice according to BNBC-93 in the construction industry of Khulna city and identify the influencing factors for BNBC-93 adoption. The research has been carried out by a questionnaire survey where various stakeholders related to construction industry was participated. From the survey it was found that BNBC-93 rules on site management implementation rate are only 51% in Khulna city. According to this study, the main barriers to BNBC-93 rules adoption in construction site management are the lack of management support and negligence by relevant stakeholders. The lack of knowledge, behavior of workers and lack of law enforcement also act as significant barriers in this context. To increase the implementation of BNBC-93 rules on site management it is necessary to take action by the government agencies and increase awareness among all the stakeholders.

https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02082092

Önder Halis Bettemir Tuğba Erzurum

Resource leveling is implemented to reduce the fluctuations of the daily resource usage and the peak resource usage throughout the construction period. Measurement of peak resource demand is straightforward, while fluctuations of resource distribution are difficult to evaluate. Therefore many resource distribution metrics are proposed in order to measure the fluctuations of the resource distribution. In this study, minimum moment, absolute difference, sum of the squares, and minimum deviation resource distribution metrics are compared by implementing resource distribution on four case study problems obtained from the previous studies. The case study problems are optimized by exhaustive enumeration in order to ensure that the global optimum is obtained for each resource distribution metric. Recently the comparison was conducted for small projects. In this study, larger projects are evaluated to examine the effects of the project size and the search domain. Optimized resource distribution metrics are compared in terms of peak resource demand and the overall resource distribution fhistogram. Similarity to the standard 'S' curve is expected for good fit resource distribution. The metrics are also compared in terms of easiness of implementation and computational demand. Results of the analyses revealed that minimum moment metric provided lower peak resource demand among the other resource distribution metrics. In addition to this, computational demand and easiness of implementation of the minimum moment metric is the most suitable. The results of this research can be beneficial for the project managers through the selection of appropriate resource distribution metric.

https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02093102

Patricia N. Lauritzen John Reichard Shiblee Ahmed Mahdi Safa

Maritime ports are in an asset-intensive industry which requires periodic condition monitoring for infrastructure and equipment. Investments for port physical assets call for more robust lifecycle management, condition monitoring, and maintenance schemes. Port infrastructure and equipment, due to their geographic locations, are under a constant state of deterioration from natural elements such as storms, erosion, and sea spray. The issues that natural elements create, in addition to persistent wear-and-tear, can accelerate the aging process of the port's assets. Inspections utilizing Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) can drastically refine condition monitoring, quality control, and lifecycle management. These improvements have the potential to significantly increase the resilience and readiness of port infrastructure and equipment. This study investigates the current and potential NDT methodologies utilized in the maritime port industry. The objective of this research is to create a comprehensive literature review of following NDT methods: ultrasonic testing (UT), magnetic particle inspection (MPI), rebound hardness testing (RHT), and infrared thermography (IR). The result of this study will be used as a guideline to assist facilities managers in improving current NDT maintenance methods which can be applied to the facility's overall operations.

https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02103111